As an avid collector of ironies, I hit the jackpot last week. Liberal media commentators were horrified that Pope Francis didn’t see a problem with slapping children for corrective purposes, but actively argued for aborting more children by widening Irish abortion laws! The latest wave in this debate started Wednesday of last week with a…

Last week felt like ‘Same-Sex Marriage Week’. Monday evening saw the start of a new series on RTÉ 1, Claire Byrne Live. I thought it was rather bizarre to start the show with Colin Farrell making the case for same-sex marriage. He was obviously sincere, but ‘Hollywood star favours gay marriage’ sounds more like a…

Having lost some of its programmes to UTV Ireland, TV3 had to fight back with some stronger programming and the twice-weekly drama Red Rock was flagged as its foray into original soaps. Describing it as a soap actually does it something of an injustice, as it’s better than that. The atmospheric visuals immediately put it…

It was a shocking week, with the awful murders in France dominating the media landscape. But what upset me the most was a report on last Sunday’s Nine News on RTÉ 1 that children as young as 10 were being used as suicide bombers by the terrorist group Boku Haram in Nigeria. Now there’s a…

‘New Year’s Day saw the launch of the UTV Ireland channel and I thought it was rather low key… Maybe they didn’t want to raise expectations too high’, writes Brendan O’Regan

‘religious imagination is scarce enough in media land these days’, writes Brendan O’Regan

Brendan O’Regan reviews 2014 on TV and radio

Morning Movie: The Nun’s Story RTÉ 1, Sat, Dec 20, 7.55am  (1959) Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch. Director: Fred Zinnemann. Gabrielle Van Der Mal gave up everything to become a nun. But her faith and her vows are forever being tested. In Concert: Sing Noel! A Christmas Concert EWTN, Sat, Dec 20, 11am & Christmas Day…

Only death galvanises the powers-that-be into action writes Brendan O’Regan

Poignant moments from this week’s TV and radio